Speaker 1: Rosie Jason X Men ninety seven. Man ah, I mean
Speaker 1: late latest episode, Tolerance is Extinction. We are recording this
Speaker 1: on Thursday morning, May the second, the day after that
Speaker 1: episode came out. And this is the most Magneto was
Speaker 1: right episode yet, to the point that there is a
Speaker 1: huge monologue about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, coming from the most unlikely source as well.
Speaker 1: You know what is my I'm just blown away at
Speaker 1: how continuously hard this show is going. And yes, tell
Speaker 1: me that the most unlikely source just goes to show you,
Speaker 1: like human allies are still human and it's mutants are
Speaker 1: left to fend for themselves in an increasingly dangerous world.
Speaker 1: And you know what, Magneto was right.
Speaker 2: Magnea was right, baby. I mean, what an episode to
Speaker 2: introduce a completely new origin to Bastion that kind of
Speaker 2: makes him even stranger and avoids the siege perilous, which
Speaker 2: we're obviously not going to get, and to just have
Speaker 2: this great, you know, resolution of Magneto being right and
Speaker 2: then having the reappearance of a certain professor. And I
Speaker 2: just was so angry when he showed up and said
Speaker 2: the words, and.
Speaker 3: I thought, how dare you? Just how dare you?
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, what an episode and to get
Speaker 2: those super cool cameos. It was very much in the
Speaker 2: vein of that nineties animated Marvel stuff where all the
Speaker 2: shows were crossover.
Speaker 3: So I think that was really exciting. I just I
Speaker 3: can't believe how right they've got it.
Speaker 1: They got it right.
Speaker 3: Every point with this show. It's it's just such a delight.
Speaker 1: One more thing, I am convinced that Bastian XPAN ninety
Speaker 1: seven Bastian is influenced heavily by zeb Wells, mister Sinister,
Speaker 1: because oh yeah, he's so fun with how evil and
Speaker 1: terrible he is.
Speaker 2: Oh and he's exceptionally campy. Yes, very very he's very campy.
Speaker 2: He's just aware of what he has to do and
Speaker 2: he does it in an incredibly suave and terrible way.
Speaker 2: It's wonderful to watch.
Speaker 1: Shall we start the show.
Speaker 3: Let's start the show.
Speaker 1: Oh my name is Jason Concepcion and I'm Rosday Night,
Speaker 1: and welcome back to X Revision, the podcast where we
Speaker 1: dive deep but dear favorite shows, movies, comics of pop culture,
Speaker 1: coming to you from my Heart Radio, where we'll be
Speaker 1: bringing you two episodes a week every Tuesday and Thursday.
Speaker 1: And today we're hopping into our matching X Wings. I
Speaker 1: always like the Y Wing, but you know, X Wings
Speaker 1: are fine, and we are heading out into a galaxy far,
Speaker 1: far far away to catch up on all the things
Speaker 1: that have happened in Star Wars.
Speaker 2: So that means in today's episode, previously on, it's all
Speaker 2: your Star Wars news, baby, your May fourth news, your
Speaker 2: news from four months ago because we weren't here, we're
Speaker 2: going to talk about Star Wars Hunters, racepin off movie.
Speaker 2: And in the airlock we're gonna break down that epping
Speaker 2: and heartbreaking ending of the Bad Batch season three, the
Speaker 2: final season, see what our.
Speaker 3: Favorite clones have been up to.
Speaker 2: And in the back matter, we're gonna explain what is
Speaker 2: the Star Wars Expanded Universe, what Star Wars legends.
Speaker 3: Well, now you're gonna know. But first, previously on.
Speaker 2: Guess what it's May fourth, May the fourth be with You,
Speaker 2: Revenge of the Fifth, etc. So we have a new
Speaker 2: trailer for the Acolyte. The other Star Wars show we're
Speaker 2: getting this year is Skeleton Crew, which does seem like
Speaker 2: it's coming out. Kalida has a report saying it's coming
Speaker 2: out in twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: Something that I think is really.
Speaker 2: Cool that Joelle picked up on that I hadn't heard
Speaker 2: of was John Watts, who was the Spider Man MCU
Speaker 2: trilogy director.
Speaker 3: Great director.
Speaker 2: He's in charge of the Skeleton Crew room now and
Speaker 2: he was at CCXP in Mexico City, their first Mexico
Speaker 2: City version of the con dishing how he's mixed the
Speaker 2: latest tech with some good old fashioned movie matt and
Speaker 2: he's actually saying some stuff that if you're a Jurassic
Speaker 2: Park fan, this is going to blow your mind. I
Speaker 2: got to use all the cool stuff on my most
Speaker 2: recent Star Wars show. We had previous moap, we shot
Speaker 2: on the volume. We did everything, but the most fun
Speaker 2: part was that we also used old school techniques as well.
Speaker 2: We got Phil Tippett to do stop most. We did
Speaker 2: mat painting, We did old fashion Matt paintings, ILM painter
Speaker 2: out of retirement to come and do that. So to me,
Speaker 2: that stuff is fun, but it's just another tool and
Speaker 2: it depends how you use it. So Phil Tippitt was
Speaker 2: supposed to be doing the stop motion on the dinosaurs
Speaker 2: for Jurassic Park. You can see those old reels on
Speaker 2: YouTube are incredible, and obviously he got replaced by the
Speaker 2: guys at the upstart company at that point, ILM with
Speaker 2: their amazing stop motion combo animatronic combo CG combo. But
Speaker 2: Phil still got the famous credit of dinosaur supervisor. And
Speaker 2: to hear that he is coming in is very very exciting.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean he worked on Episode four or New Hope,
Speaker 1: Empire Strikes Back, returning to the Jedi, among many many, many,
Speaker 1: many many many other films, both as a stop motion
Speaker 1: guy and as as effects supervisor. This is really really cool.
Speaker 3: Other big news from May fourth weekend, they re released
Speaker 3: The Phantom Menace, the much maligned Phantom Menace twenty fifth
Speaker 3: anniversary this year, which is now.
Speaker 1: The such beligne, much beloved.
Speaker 3: You know, and the kids grew up on it.
Speaker 2: The gen Z kids love it, and I remember working
Speaker 2: in the comic shop and they loved it. And in
Speaker 2: a surprising twist, the Phantom Menace came in second place
Speaker 2: at the box office this weekend, which is pretty huge
Speaker 2: for a summer box office h weekend that you can
Speaker 2: do a re release, and there was loads of fun
Speaker 2: stuff that they did for it. You and McGregor showed
Speaker 2: up at screening in Atlanta. We got to see once
Speaker 2: again Armor Best, finally getting the respect he deserves and
Speaker 2: getting to kind of reshape his.
Speaker 3: Role in the Star Wars universe, which we love.
Speaker 2: Speaking of Armor Best and Jar Jar Binks, Armor Best
Speaker 2: will be returning for the new Star Wars animated series,
Speaker 2: Rebuild the Galaxy, which is going to be a mashup
Speaker 2: series celebrating the anniversary of Lego and Star Wars first collaboration.
Speaker 3: And we're going to get to see Darth jar Jar Binks.
Speaker 1: Whoa imagine.
Speaker 2: Now, that's crazy. I never thought I would see that.
Speaker 2: There was also a fortnit Star Wars update. You can
Speaker 2: rescue Chubacca and then it'll give you his wookie bocaster.
Speaker 2: Oh so you know if you defeat Darth Vader, you're
Speaker 2: gonna get his iconic lightsaber. We're also getting a ton
Speaker 2: of new toys Hasbro vintage Attack of the Clones figures,
Speaker 2: Black Series Darth Sidius if you want to say somehow
Speaker 2: he returned. We're getting a half Boys Dark Luke if
Speaker 2: you're feeling spenny and you want to spend some money,
Speaker 2: and even a desuric board game if you've ever wanted
Speaker 2: to play Star Wars chess.
Speaker 3: So truly, just all kinds of exciting news this may fourth.
Speaker 1: Next up the Ray spinoff movie New Jedi Order. According
Speaker 1: to Collider Quote, Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that the film will
Speaker 1: introduce an all new era of the Star Wars timeline,
Speaker 1: officially titled The New Jedi Order. As such, the film
Speaker 1: is expected to follow Ray she works to rebuild the
Speaker 1: Jedi Order now that her grandfather and her Palpatide and
Speaker 1: this Citizen and the Citizen First Order have been defeated,
Speaker 1: and recently in Variety, Daisy Ridley was quoted as saying
Speaker 1: her meaning Charmine obay Chinoi's director, the director's plans for
Speaker 1: this film, her idea for the story is cool as shit.
Speaker 1: No spoilers, but she gave me a rundown of the
Speaker 1: entire story. If it weren't amazing, I would have been like, okay,
Speaker 1: call me in years. But it's worthwhile. So that's very exciting.
Speaker 3: That's exciting.
Speaker 2: Look, I when I was a kid and I was
Speaker 2: growing up, and I was reading Expanded Universe books, everything
Speaker 2: that I loved was like anything to do with Jedi
Speaker 2: School yea as to the Empire, the Jedi Academy trilogy,
Speaker 2: Like I love anything to do with this.
Speaker 3: So I think it's exciting.
Speaker 2: I'm also like kind of of the mind that like,
Speaker 2: if John Boyeg is not coming back, I don't really
Speaker 2: care about it, Like I'm in that weird jewel space
Speaker 2: of like I love Finn and I feel like John
Speaker 2: wasn't treated well by Star Wars and lucasfilm as a whole,
Speaker 2: so I feel bit sweet about it. But I do
Speaker 2: think it's an interesting route and it would actually be
Speaker 2: cool to see a real Jedi Academy story that isn't
Speaker 2: you know, a cartoon that is focused on reimagining the Jedi,
Speaker 2: and I'll be interested to see what kind of new
Speaker 2: threat they invoke.
Speaker 1: I am I'll get more into this topic when we
Speaker 1: talk about The Bad Batch, which just finished up its
Speaker 1: excellent third and final season. But I am interested in
Speaker 1: seeing how, if at all, Daisy and the Jedis have
Speaker 1: learned from the mistakes of the past as they rebuild
Speaker 1: the Jedi Order, because I think present in Bad Batch
Speaker 1: is a really cutting critique of the way the Jedis
Speaker 1: have run their affairs for centuries. We've talked about this
Speaker 1: a lot. Yeah, so I'm sure people are like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we go to the Jury's are bad, They're not bad,
Speaker 1: it's just we'll talk about it imperfect. They're imperfect, and
Speaker 1: I think that how Ray deals with that imperfection, if
Speaker 1: at all, is going to be faster.
Speaker 3: I totally agree.
Speaker 1: Going to be fascinating to me. Next up, Star wars Hunters,
Speaker 1: a new free to play video game coming out June fourth.
Speaker 1: Star wars Hunters by the developer the long running and
Speaker 1: story developer Zinga. It is going to be an arena
Speaker 1: shooter in the clearly in the vein of Fortnite folks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think they really want that Overwatch Fortnight vibe.
Speaker 2: It's going to take a place on a cannon planet
Speaker 2: a Vispara, which I think is very interesting, and it's
Speaker 2: going to be kind of like a cool arena battleground game.
Speaker 2: I was not expecting it to be free to play.
Speaker 1: Me neither, so I'm very.
Speaker 2: Interested in that turn of events and kind of what
Speaker 2: that means. I love the Switch that is still my
Speaker 2: favorite console, so yeah, I'm I'm interested in this one.
Speaker 2: I'm not usually like an arena player kind of guy
Speaker 2: and more of a fighting game guy, but the character
Speaker 2: designs look so cute, and I want to be a
Speaker 2: Wookie with a giant sledge Hammer. Like, there's just so
Speaker 2: many cool, like cartoony characters you got like Zana a
Speaker 2: rebel war hero, scorer e Rodian saw Bones, Sentinel and
Speaker 2: Imperial Heavy Gonna, oh Sprocket a monk, Kalamari prodigy. I
Speaker 2: love Montcalorai char a tradeotion trapper. You know, it sounds
Speaker 2: like a fun roster throughout the Stars universe, and obviously
Speaker 2: a lot of us grew up playing you know, Masters
Speaker 2: of Terras CARSI yeah, like these weirder like forgotten Star
Speaker 2: Wars games, And in a way, I feel like this
Speaker 2: is invoking that kind of more casual fun in the
Speaker 2: world of Star Wars, but not like a Triple A,
Speaker 2: you know, Jedi Survivor, which we both loved and played extensively.
Speaker 2: But I like the idea that this could be a
Speaker 2: little bit more accessible for casual gamers.
Speaker 1: And this being Star Wars. There is of course Italian
Speaker 1: book Star Wars Hunters Battle for the Arena by Marc O'shiro.
Speaker 1: The blurb is on the planet Vespara lies in the Arena,
Speaker 1: a series of battlefields where fighter is known as Hunters,
Speaker 1: face off in teams to compete in front of roaring
Speaker 1: Crowds includes original illustrations based on the game. Came out
Speaker 1: March seventh and looks fun if you want to know
Speaker 1: more about the lore of Star Wars Hunters. Next up,
Speaker 1: we open up the Airlock to talk about Bad Batch
Speaker 1: Season the Street. We open following the events of season two.
Speaker 1: Omega finds herself a prisoner of the Imperial cloning program
Speaker 1: run by Royce Helmlock and the Camino and scientists. Now
Speaker 1: Las Crosshair is also there, and Omega plots her escape
Speaker 1: and she wants to take cross Hair with her and
Speaker 1: she all and cross Hair is like, no, don't do it.
Speaker 1: And she also befriends a wonderful beast which she names
Speaker 1: bad Batch. She names Batcher. Meanwhile, the bad Batch is
Speaker 1: searching the galaxy for intel on Omega. They're rating various
Speaker 1: Imperial bases try and find out how they can find her.
Speaker 1: They meet some stranded clones along the way, and they
Speaker 1: are increasingly getting more and more data on Hemlock's plans. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Palpatine get this Rosie very interested in something called Project Necromancer.
Speaker 4: I wonder, OK, so this is I think is actually
Speaker 4: like so huge because it.
Speaker 2: Is it is actually huge since we've we saw poor
Speaker 2: Oscar Isaac.
Speaker 3: All he wanted in his life was to just have
Speaker 3: Poe and Finn.
Speaker 2: Be in a relationship, and instead they had him out
Speaker 2: of the Immortal Words.
Speaker 3: Somehow Palpatine has returned.
Speaker 2: Ever since we've seen that, every single Star Wars project,
Speaker 2: we've been like, when is it?
Speaker 1: How did he return?
Speaker 2: And it turns and they've been teasing it, you know, oh,
Speaker 2: is it going to be in the Mandalorian?
Speaker 3: Is it going to be here?
Speaker 2: And they're like, boom, Project Necromancer, I'm gonna just he's
Speaker 2: he's had his people working on it in an animated world,
Speaker 2: in the live action world, but it seems like here
Speaker 2: they're finally onto something.
Speaker 3: And this is a very controversial project. I feel like
Speaker 3: on many levels.
Speaker 1: Top secret project, very controversial, very few people know about it,
Speaker 1: and also very clearly in beta because basically it doesn't
Speaker 1: work unless they get Omega back bits, you know, the
Speaker 1: other things that they've done. And I made this clone,
Speaker 1: which is like just me another one. They they they
Speaker 1: which is why they have Noveleds say there of course,
Speaker 1: but it's just they're in this bottle neck because they
Speaker 1: gotta have Omega. What is Project Necromancer interested in it's
Speaker 1: interested in individuals with a high m count. What could
Speaker 1: that be a minty Glorias da Glorians of course, but
Speaker 1: our but our characters don't know that. And if you're
Speaker 1: anything like us, you spent several episodes, you know, seventy
Speaker 1: percent of this of the season saying it's mina Clorian's.
Speaker 3: Guys.
Speaker 1: Okay, So Omega's blood is very promising in this regard,
Speaker 1: and nals Say, who has all kinds of concerns and
Speaker 1: doubts about the program and the direction of the program,
Speaker 1: warns Omega like, you're in danger. Girl escapes despite crosshairs objections.
Speaker 1: She takes him with her Omeia Crossair go on the Lamb.
Speaker 1: It's a very very odd couple stuff where Crosshair is
Speaker 1: always like, well, we could kill them and take this ship,
Speaker 1: and Omega's like, no, no, We're not just gonna kill
Speaker 1: people and take their ships and stuff. Eventually they reunite
Speaker 1: with Hunter and Recker, who are very happy to see
Speaker 1: Omega and really kind of not that happy to see Crosshairs,
Speaker 1: but very interested in saving all the clones that they
Speaker 1: can save who have been either stranded or left behind
Speaker 1: or otherwise abused by the Empire. In the wake of
Speaker 1: Order sixty six, Omega and the Reunited Batch investigate what
Speaker 1: the Empires up to on Tantis. They need to find it.
Speaker 1: They want to know what's going on there. It's where
Speaker 1: Project Necromancer's going on. They rate an other abandoned base
Speaker 1: on the snow planet Part and four to unlock a
Speaker 1: data path that Omega has to get more information about Tantis,
Speaker 1: and they have no idea where Tantis is. Still we
Speaker 1: meet up with Rex and his band of road Clones.
Speaker 1: They're working as bodyguards to a ex separatist senator. They're
Speaker 1: also trying to kind of foment rebellion against the Empire.
Speaker 1: They come against a clone named CX one. Now there's
Speaker 1: a lot of bad things going on on tantas Rosie
Speaker 1: one of them. One of them is a Clone assassin.
Speaker 1: It's like the Born Identity but for clones, where they
Speaker 1: take the.
Speaker 2: Clone's terrifying sniper Clone.
Speaker 1: Terrible, and they even and they take these clones and
Speaker 1: they break their minds even further than you would think
Speaker 1: would be safe and find to do and create these
Speaker 1: just killers who are completely dispensable. Now Rex and crew
Speaker 1: pretty shockingly easily take a CX one hostage and they
Speaker 1: and they start interrogating him. They want to know, like
Speaker 1: what do you know? So what happens? Hemlock is like,
Speaker 1: we'll send another one to like go take care of
Speaker 1: CX one because we don't want CX one talking, So
Speaker 1: they send another assassin to go kill c X one.
Speaker 1: The new assassin CX two gets yes, learns that Omega
Speaker 1: is alive and is with the bad Batch, and now
Speaker 1: they have a location on her. They send an Imperial
Speaker 1: strike team over there to the planet Pabu where they're
Speaker 1: all hanging out, led by Lieutenant Hilo and our good
Speaker 1: friend Commander Wolf. They are surprised to be attacking a
Speaker 1: group of clones and in the chaos, the Batch and
Speaker 1: other clones they escape. C X two pursues them. The
Speaker 1: Batch gets in a ship, which X two shoots down.
Speaker 1: Wolf is like, hey, we need Omega live, don't shoot
Speaker 1: down the ship. What the fuck are you doing? And
Speaker 1: then Rex meets Wolf as they're about to escape. Wolf
Speaker 1: is about to arrest them, and Rex is like, do
Speaker 1: you know what they're doing? They're hunting little kids. You
Speaker 1: want to be a part of this.
Speaker 2: This is what you mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're experimenting on clones.
Speaker 1: They're and then hunting children, like that's what you're that's
Speaker 1: what you do now, and Wolf is like, okay, you
Speaker 1: guys can go.
Speaker 3: You guys, that sucks. I'm sorry, that's that's terrible.
Speaker 1: Everybody is like laying low on Pabus so they can
Speaker 1: like figure out what does m count mean? Guys?
Speaker 3: Just ask anyone, Ask anyone.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry it's been Dave Felony, I love you and
Speaker 2: I love this show, but it's been too long since the.
Speaker 3: Terror of Midiclorians was introduced into Star.
Speaker 2: Wars canon and became the world's biggest controversy at the
Speaker 2: time for us to pretend we don't know what m
Speaker 2: count means.
Speaker 3: It definitely means Midiclorians, guys.
Speaker 1: And there they learn from Fee that the Empire, in
Speaker 1: their hunt for high am count individuals, is using bounty
Speaker 1: hunters to hunt kids. So omay, it's like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I know about a bounty hunter Phenix Shan. What if
Speaker 1: we what if we contact Fanic and ask if she's
Speaker 1: ever been hired or knows anybody who's done one of
Speaker 1: these m count hunts. And they meet up with her
Speaker 1: and they do a little job with her, and she
Speaker 1: gives them a little bit of information and then immediately
Speaker 1: betrays them to someone else. Meanwhile, Omega teaches Crosshair to
Speaker 1: meditate like the Wookies on cash Sheet. Now take this
Speaker 1: fact the meditation. Also take Omega's bond with Batcher the
Speaker 1: hound Batcher, Okay, and just put that in your pocket
Speaker 1: for a second, because I want to return to those
Speaker 1: two yeale things.
Speaker 3: Ask me too, me too.
Speaker 2: Also, I just want to say, like, this is such
Speaker 2: it's kind of funny in a way, how this I'm
Speaker 2: X Men ninety seven.
Speaker 3: I feel like they both suffered from but also.
Speaker 2: Get gaining something from the lack of promotion around them
Speaker 2: when reading the different names and things that happen in
Speaker 2: this episode, in these episodes where it's like Fenick Shan's there, that.
Speaker 3: Feels like a huge moment.
Speaker 2: You know who she betrays them to, that's gonna be
Speaker 2: a huge, huge anyway. And so instead of kind of
Speaker 2: this being promoted as like it's the final episodes, you
Speaker 2: got to see it. It kind of dropped on Disney Plus.
Speaker 2: But I feel like it's getting even just since it dropped.
Speaker 2: Is like word of mouth, word of mouth, word of mouth,
Speaker 2: word of mouth, word of mouth, and it's interesting because
Speaker 2: I feel like X Men ninety seven is the same
Speaker 2: way the way that's been dropping that is like a
Speaker 2: weekly show that is the water cooler show right now,
Speaker 2: especially since Shogun ended, but Disney hasn't necessarily.
Speaker 3: Promoted it that way.
Speaker 2: But it's that animation is not seen in the same
Speaker 2: way as live action, and it's just funny because when
Speaker 2: you're reading these things, I'm like, if this was an
Speaker 2: episode of The Mandalorian or something, everyone would be like
Speaker 2: losing that. But yeah, yeah, yeah, let's I want to
Speaker 2: talk more about about those things. But also I just
Speaker 2: want to say something that I think is really cool
Speaker 2: about this that again leans into that way that all
Speaker 2: these things intersect, is that, you know, Kieran Gillen was
Speaker 2: doing weird Palpatine experiments in his Darth Veda comics. Yes,
Speaker 2: and he had you know, Darth Veder kind of saying
Speaker 2: this is an abomination, like you shouldn't do this, and
Speaker 2: we get like a reference almost to that here when
Speaker 2: Palpatine's like people who think this would be an abomination,
Speaker 2: and it's like, ohh and I love that they kind
Speaker 2: of I love the impact that someone writing a comic
Speaker 2: can impact this show that comes out like seven years later.
Speaker 2: I just think that that collaborative building blocks is what
Speaker 2: makes this stuff so exciting.
Speaker 1: I completely agree. Turns out that Fennick dimed the batch
Speaker 1: out to none other than our favorite assage ventress eh
Speaker 1: Or sensitive das Amerian outlaw tells the batch what everyone
Speaker 1: has been dying to say about m count, that it's
Speaker 1: Midichlorian's alan. She runs Omega through a bunch of different exercises.
Speaker 1: In doing so, she also has to like mind bond
Speaker 1: with this huge like squid beast and get it to
Speaker 1: calm down. Then she tells the batch that Omega's yeah,
Speaker 1: the tests are normal. She's like nothing, nothing weird, no
Speaker 1: high m count. They know she's lying, okay, And remember
Speaker 1: the thing I said about the the meditation, the bonding
Speaker 1: with the with Bacher, the hound. Take that out of
Speaker 1: your pocket. Now, we just saw Venturs bond with a beast.
Speaker 1: We have seen Omega do it as well. We know
Speaker 1: that jedis fucking love to meditate. Omega's doing these things instinctively.
Speaker 1: She clearly has a connection to the forest house strong.
Speaker 1: We don't know, But why is my just lying about it?
Speaker 3: This is like fascinating, I know, so Is she trying
Speaker 3: to protect her? That's what I know? Is it because
Speaker 3: her m count is so high?
Speaker 2: Also, I thought it's interesting the way that they kind
Speaker 2: of they're like, oh, midichlorians can predict an individual's connection
Speaker 2: to the force, whereas as we've known it before, it's
Speaker 2: it's a direct.
Speaker 1: Act if hospital, Yeah, it's causality.
Speaker 3: So I like this kind of loosening of what a mediclorian.
Speaker 2: Can mean, because that was not a huge popular choice
Speaker 2: when they added midichlorians to the cannon. But why is
Speaker 2: she lying? I think, is she protecting her? Is it
Speaker 2: because her m count is so high? Is it because
Speaker 2: she knows what Palpatine is planning and she doesn't want
Speaker 2: It's very interesting.
Speaker 3: Because like we know that. So speaking of.
Speaker 2: The expanded universe, right in the books, Han Solo has
Speaker 2: kids called Jason and Jana, and Jason is very connected
Speaker 2: to animals. That's like his force power, and whenever it
Speaker 2: comes up, I always think of Jason.
Speaker 3: I always think of that.
Speaker 2: The bond between nature and humanity and how that is
Speaker 2: like a huge part of the force. And I think
Speaker 2: it's really interesting to see it here because it usually
Speaker 2: means someone's force powers are immense. Yeah, and there's something
Speaker 2: there that is special about them.
Speaker 3: Obviously, for Jason went terribly wrong. If you've seen the
Speaker 3: sequel movies.
Speaker 2: Kylo Ren is very heavily influenced by Jason. But I'm
Speaker 2: I'm very interested in what this means for Omega. I
Speaker 2: want to see Omega become, you know, a main core
Speaker 2: Star Wars character, because she's so interesting and clearly they
Speaker 2: they're planning more for her beyond the finale.
Speaker 1: What's also fascinating with this scene is Venturos then says, well,
Speaker 1: you know, if she did have a connection to the Force,
Speaker 1: because Hunter basically says, why are you lying? You know,
Speaker 1: just straight out asks her, why are you lying about this?
Speaker 1: She says, well, and you know, if she did have
Speaker 1: a connection of the Force, she'd need to be trained.
Speaker 1: The Empire's going to come after, she'd need to be trained.
Speaker 1: That means she would have to leave you forever for
Speaker 1: years to go undergo her training. Is that okay? And
Speaker 1: the Hunters like that will never happen. And to your
Speaker 1: point about protection and I'm going to come back to
Speaker 1: this topic later after what we see, when we see
Speaker 1: the truth about Project Necromancer, because to me, what I
Speaker 1: think Venturess is protecting her from is the way that
Speaker 1: Force users are exploited and treated. I think that I
Speaker 1: think Venturess maybe has come to a place where she's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: give this connection to the force. You didn't choose that,
Speaker 1: But why can't you just have a connection to the force.
Speaker 1: Why do you have to develop it? Why does it
Speaker 1: have to be developed to Who does it benefit? What
Speaker 1: does it benefit anyone that all these kids are trained
Speaker 1: as Jedi or Sith or whatever it Actually, certainly they
Speaker 1: don't get any benefit out of it because most of
Speaker 1: them get killed.
Speaker 2: Over time, exactly exactly, And that's like, I love that read.
Speaker 1: So that's what I think ventures is saying, is like,
Speaker 1: opt out of all of this. Don't even pursue it,
Speaker 1: don't care about it.
Speaker 3: Just don't care about it. Yeah, it's not important. You're
Speaker 3: just a kid.
Speaker 1: Back on Tantis, doctor Carr takes over for Nalisa after
Speaker 1: Hemlock throws Nalis in the brig. Hemlock is under huge
Speaker 1: pressure to take Project Necromancer out of Beta, move it
Speaker 1: at least into Alpha, and of course he needs Omega's
Speaker 1: blood to do that. Car However, as she's seeing the
Speaker 1: true face of project Necromancer that it's it's all the
Speaker 1: experimental subjects are kids, begins to become attached to these
Speaker 1: children and is gradually growing disillusioned with the the you know.
Speaker 1: Turns out the Empire's bad Doctor Carr Are you kidding me?
Speaker 1: C x two manages to get to Pabu After torturing
Speaker 1: Sid for information, he confirms that Omega is there. Imperial
Speaker 1: forces shortly thereafter arrive on the planet and just start
Speaker 1: blowing everything up indiscriminately, firing like at anything that moves.
Speaker 1: The Bad Batch tries to escape, but in the running
Speaker 1: fight that ensues, Record is pretty seriously wounded. A hunter
Speaker 1: is shot out of the sky. Omega is distraught. She's
Speaker 1: seeing her friends and the regular citizens of Paboo getting
Speaker 1: getting visited by terrible destruction, so she surrenders. She's like,
Speaker 1: just stop all this and take me, take me to Tantas.
Speaker 1: C x two takes her away. Hemlock welcomes Omega back,
Speaker 1: puts her under the care of doctor Carr, who begins
Speaker 1: immediately running tests. Meanwhile, the Bad Batch is like, we
Speaker 1: gotta find her. They're reading they this is a crazy
Speaker 1: twist that I did not say see coming. They raid
Speaker 1: an Imperial concentration camp to free none other than our
Speaker 1: good friend, former Imperial Admiral Rampart, who they think, well,
Speaker 1: I was like, what very rogue one of he doesn't
Speaker 1: know where Yeah, super rogue one, he doesn't know where
Speaker 1: it is, but he's like, you know what, I'll help you.
Speaker 1: And of course, you know the whole time that Rampart
Speaker 1: just wants to get back in the Empire. Anyway, back
Speaker 1: on Tantas, Omega's tests come back and they're just what
Speaker 1: Hemlock was hoping for. He takes her down to the vault.
Speaker 1: The horror now of Project Necromancer becomes clear as Omega
Speaker 1: meets her fellow prisoners and all of them are children
Speaker 1: like herself, and she vows, I've escaped ones I'm gonna
Speaker 1: fucking do it again. Meanwhile, of course, the Batch and
Speaker 1: Rampart meet up with Echo. They hijack an Imperial shuttle
Speaker 1: and their whole thing is like, we got to get
Speaker 1: you know, how do we sneak on this shuttle? And
Speaker 1: they have this whole plan that falls apart. But long
Speaker 1: story short, they managed to like attach their shuttle to
Speaker 1: a ship that's jumping to light speed that's going to tantus.
Speaker 1: Hemlock gets worried that the bad batcher coming. He starts
Speaker 1: shooting at them immediately as they enter like orbit and
Speaker 1: now the big shit is the big climaxes happening at once.
Speaker 1: Omega hears the cannon. She knows her friends are here.
Speaker 1: She starts putting her plans into motion. The batch crash.
Speaker 1: They're in the jungle, They're getting chased by beasts, They're
Speaker 1: getting fired at by stormtroopers. C X two is trying
Speaker 1: to kill them. Meanwhile, Echo has managed to sneak into
Speaker 1: the base, where he gets a shocking assist from a
Speaker 1: conscious stricken Doctor car. I want to say this, you know,
Speaker 1: a plot story whatever. For me, it's like, how do
Speaker 1: I feel when I watch something exactly doctor Carr's strike
Speaker 1: of like her conscience starting to nag at her. I
Speaker 1: think was one of the most emotional things I've seen
Speaker 1: in a Star Wars story in a long time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I have to say, like, I think that one
Speaker 2: of the things that Dave Filoni's always been fantastic about
Speaker 2: in these spaces is adding the nuance that you don't
Speaker 2: often get, you know, the kind of conversations we always
Speaker 2: have of like you know, what.
Speaker 3: About the people who worked on the Death Star, Like
Speaker 3: what about that?
Speaker 2: And here you actually get to see someone have an
Speaker 2: emotion journey who otherwise would have just been like another
Speaker 2: dead body that got shot when you're trying to escape.
Speaker 2: And I think that that emotional nuance in space is
Speaker 2: very interesting. And I also think something that and we'll
Speaker 2: get to this, I'll kind of talk about it more,
Speaker 2: but it's very interesting because I would say this is
Speaker 2: like a heartbreaking emotional finale, but it's also not all
Speaker 2: bad news. But they managed to be good news and
Speaker 2: goodness with this kind of really heartbreaking, horrible story about
Speaker 2: these children being you know, experimented on.
Speaker 1: Well, and with what Venturis said to Hunter about the
Speaker 1: way the Jedi is trained. To me, I couldn't stop
Speaker 1: thinking about how this is also like an oblique criticism
Speaker 1: of the Jedi, who do the exact same thing kidnap kids,
Speaker 1: take them to Coruscant to train, and your parents never
Speaker 1: seen them again, and they go through all these.
Speaker 3: Religions your parents in slavery.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And honestly, what's the difference. It's like you make it.
Speaker 1: If we're right about Venturis, is, does she not have
Speaker 1: a point like forget all of it, forget Jedi, forget
Speaker 1: training to be a Sith, forget all of it, and
Speaker 1: just go be anonymous in the galaxy.
Speaker 2: It is extremely silly as well when you think about it,
Speaker 2: because the truth is Jedis will just take you away
Speaker 2: from your family, train you all your life. But then
Speaker 2: fucking Luke Skywalker just got trained for like three days
Speaker 2: in a fucking bog and he was an emergency. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, like, you can do a summer camp
Speaker 2: version when you take children away from their families, but
Speaker 2: it is about essentially training child soldiers. And also, I
Speaker 2: mean even just the rules of the Jedi. You know,
Speaker 2: you can't love, you can't.
Speaker 3: Feel anger, like all that stuff is very repressive.
Speaker 2: Like we've talked about this over many years, and this
Speaker 2: is what it is to be a fan is to
Speaker 2: look at this stuff and go wait a minute, And
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: It's more complex than it appears, and I love that they.
Speaker 2: Chose to explore that in this series and kind of
Speaker 2: once again, like the Last Jedi did, like ask a
Speaker 2: question about what is the purpose of the Jedi and
Speaker 2: and how does it feel to be in that situation
Speaker 2: and would you be better off without it, and in
Speaker 2: Omega's case, the answer is definitely yes, I would rather
Speaker 2: she stayed with had like ten dads.
Speaker 1: Omega launches her escape plan proper, their their Imperial Droid
Speaker 1: ally drugs are guard, they escape, They free a zillobeast
Speaker 1: again seeing Omega's easy bond with creatures and animals, the
Speaker 1: Zillobees fucking goes Godzilla on base. Uh. Doctor Carr and
Speaker 1: Echo learned that Omega and the kids have escaped, and
Speaker 1: Hemlock is like, car, go find Omega or else. And meanwhile,
Speaker 1: standing next to Doctor Carr is Echo in disguised storm troopers. Guys.
Speaker 1: They're like, Bett, we were already planning to do that. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: in a juggle, Crosshair wants to sneak into the base
Speaker 1: of Loone but like Wrecord is badly injured and uh,
Speaker 1: and Hunter, who he's just begin to rebuild his relationship with,
Speaker 1: is there and he's like, I want to go in
Speaker 1: because if you guys die, then Omega is alone. This
Speaker 1: was like a really for me, powerful full circle moment
Speaker 1: for the Crosshair journey. Another really good dark like light
Speaker 1: to dark back to light journey for a character that
Speaker 1: I just and that's.
Speaker 2: That's that complexity that we don't always get in the
Speaker 2: movies when you've got like two hours, Like this has
Speaker 2: been a journey throughout of becoming being rogue, then becoming
Speaker 2: a villain, then coming back to the light. And I
Speaker 2: think that that is like shows that same complexity of
Speaker 2: thing about Luke Skywalker when he was training Kylo Wren
Speaker 2: and he saw a moment of darkness and he was
Speaker 2: gonna kill his nephew.
Speaker 1: Yes, him, he was killing.
Speaker 2: People's gonna be They can be tempted by the dark.
Speaker 2: They can they can make mistakes, they can do villainous things,
Speaker 2: but they can also come back to the light. And
Speaker 2: I think that that's such a powerful story.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Then all of a sudden, when they're kind of arguing
Speaker 1: about this, they watch an OWZ the Zillo Godzilla's out
Speaker 1: of the outer wall of the base, so they're like, oh, perfect,
Speaker 1: let's go in there. They go in there and they
Speaker 1: meet immediate vicious resistance from the ex Clone commandos and
Speaker 1: early versions of the Stormtroopers. They're taken prisoner. Echo and
Speaker 1: doctor carfind Omega and the kids. Car loads the kids
Speaker 1: onto a shuttle onto her shuttle to get them off
Speaker 1: the planet. They leave, Echo and Omega go back to
Speaker 1: rescue the Batch and the other and the other clones. Now,
Speaker 1: I just want to say this. The base is like
Speaker 1: under heavy attack. It's half wrecked. Their prime test subject, Omega,
Speaker 1: she's in the wind. Nobody knows where the fuck she is.
Speaker 1: A zill O beast just punched through the base. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: Hemlock can't resist taking the opportunity to be like, you
Speaker 1: know what, hey, hold my calls, I'm going to take
Speaker 1: a hunter wrecker and crosshair and I'm gonna wipe their minds,
Speaker 1: however long taken. I'm just going to do a little
Speaker 1: mind wiping. I understand this is an emergency. The base
Speaker 1: is literally on fire, but hold all like a hole
Speaker 1: in the wall.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I gotta do some mind wiping, Like.
Speaker 1: You just can't wait anyway, Echoing Omega free the other prisoners,
Speaker 1: including Nala, say, Nala is determined to keep the science data,
Speaker 1: which she considers Camino and IP from the Empire. But
Speaker 1: now I am all for what Nala is trying to
Speaker 1: destroy the data. But let's be clear, she wants to
Speaker 1: destroy the data because she feels it's the property of Camino. Yeah,
Speaker 1: any moral and anyway, she's shot by Rampart, who's thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: if I get this info, like, I can use it
Speaker 1: to leverage my way back into the Empire, which is crazy.
Speaker 1: That's never gonna happen. Anyway, she shot by Rampart. As
Speaker 1: she dies, she lets go of a grenade, kills them both,
Speaker 1: kills all the data, wipes all the data. Wonderful. Hemlock
Speaker 1: then squares off against Omega and the Batch. He gets killed,
Speaker 1: Hunter and Wrecker, everybody are freed. They all make their
Speaker 1: way to Pabo, along with doctor Carr and the kids.
Speaker 1: We fast forward. Tarkan learns that okay, well, Project Necromancer
Speaker 1: is a bust. All the fucking data every time with
Speaker 1: these people.
Speaker 2: How many how many Palpatine cloning exercises have we seen
Speaker 2: go wrong since this company was cleaned?
Speaker 3: Too many?
Speaker 2: Like lists, You guys are flopping.
Speaker 3: You had the gro you.
Speaker 2: Had grogu to baby and then that was terrible. You
Speaker 2: did this with the Mega terrible. You guys are so
Speaker 2: bad at that.
Speaker 1: Rome wasn't built in a day. It's gonna take a
Speaker 1: few other tries. But right now, listen that the Empire
Speaker 1: does not have infinite resources, so we need to take
Speaker 1: this funding from Project Necromancer, and we need to divert it,
Speaker 1: Moth Tarkin says to Project Stardust, which we all know
Speaker 1: is the death Star Dunk Dunk Dunn. And then years
Speaker 1: later we see an adult Omega join the Rebellion. I
Speaker 1: have a million questions about that, Rosie. Your thoughts about
Speaker 1: season three of The Bad Batch.
Speaker 3: I love this engine yet, I love this show.
Speaker 1: I love if it exists.
Speaker 2: I am just incredibly incredible high note to end on. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and I love it was surprisingly happy ending ish. Yes,
Speaker 2: you know, more people, more of the Batch survived than
Speaker 2: I expected.
Speaker 1: I thought it was gonna be a rogue one situation.
Speaker 3: I thought everybody but Omega does the situation.
Speaker 2: We also get crosshad losing his hand, which is like
Speaker 2: a classic Star Wars situation. You know. Yeah, I just
Speaker 2: I just thought it was delightful and I'm very I
Speaker 2: want to know more about Omega because that is like
Speaker 2: I love her. I also kind of love how when
Speaker 2: Omega was introduced. When they bought The Bad Batch back,
Speaker 2: it was like, oh my god, they've given them a
Speaker 2: kid's sidekick, Like this is gonna suck, Like that was
Speaker 2: the general response. But I love a kid sidekick historically,
Speaker 2: and I feel like Omega has really become a fan
Speaker 2: favorite character. And I feel like they did a great
Speaker 2: job of making her a part of the batch rather
Speaker 2: than making her a kind of like Dorfy, like now
Speaker 2: kids can watch this when it was always a kids show,
Speaker 2: and instead she became like the emotional heart of the group.
Speaker 2: And I really want to see more stories with her.
Speaker 2: So I'm excited about this time skip situation.
Speaker 3: But what does it mean?
Speaker 1: Like that is what I want?
Speaker 2: And when are we gonna see? Are we going to
Speaker 2: see her again? Because what does the timeline mean?
Speaker 3: Like what do you think?
Speaker 1: That's what I mean? I have no idea, but that's
Speaker 1: what I want to know. What was her role in
Speaker 1: the coming rebellion? If any how active was she? Did
Speaker 1: her connection to the force develop at all? Do people
Speaker 1: know that she's? Like how open is she about her
Speaker 1: history as a clone? And then who's left at that stage? Clone?
Speaker 1: Was like do we have does she have any of
Speaker 1: that found family around her by the time she's an adult?
Speaker 1: Still I have a ton of questions, And it's that
Speaker 1: same question I have with any of this, with any
Speaker 1: of the stuff that's happened on Disney plus or elsewhere
Speaker 1: the animated shows that fill in the holes anything from
Speaker 1: the Felony Ooves. How does this connect with the major
Speaker 1: stories that we know. That's what I can't wait to
Speaker 1: find out.
Speaker 2: That is always the most interesting thing is you know,
Speaker 2: where was this character during the rebellion or whatever? And
Speaker 2: the answer is they didn't exist. Then that's why they're
Speaker 2: not in the story. That's the narrative reason. But we
Speaker 2: want to know the in world story reasons. We want
Speaker 2: to find out where these characters were, how they played
Speaker 2: into it. That's what I think Rogue One did so
Speaker 2: fantastically is it added this context so that every single
Speaker 2: time you watch a new Hope, you are thinking about
Speaker 2: Rogue one and the sacrifices that were made. And I
Speaker 2: feel like these animated series for people like us who
Speaker 2: really love them, they have also added that. So I'm
Speaker 2: interested to see where that goes and kind of what
Speaker 2: we're going to see in Mandalorian and Grogu and how
Speaker 2: Omega potentially plays into that. Okay, so we got a
Speaker 2: new Star Wars animated series, Tales of the Empire, released
Speaker 2: on May fourth, of course, and this is a different
Speaker 2: kind of animated series than we've had before. The official
Speaker 2: description is thus, journey into the fierce Galactic Empire through
Speaker 2: the eyes of two warriors on divergent paths set during
Speaker 2: different eras. After losing everything, young Morgan Elsbeth navigates the
Speaker 2: expanding Imperial world towards a path of vengeance, while former
Speaker 2: officer Jedi barriss Offi, whoa does what she must to
Speaker 2: survive a rapidly changing galaxy. Their choices will define their destinies. Jason,
Speaker 2: what did you think.
Speaker 1: I thought it was good. I certainly enjoyed the barrass
Speaker 1: Offee episodes, the back half of the six episodes a
Speaker 1: lot more than the Morgan Elsbeth centric episodes, because it
Speaker 1: was something that I think we've never really seen before,
Speaker 1: which was a Jedi indoctrinated into the ranks of the Inquisitors,
Speaker 1: and what that would be like for a Jedi who
Speaker 1: trying to maintain a grasp on their morals and on
Speaker 1: their feelings, you know. And it made me think of
Speaker 1: a thing that we've talked about a lot, and which
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about a lot when I watched Star Wars,
Speaker 1: which is like this deteriorating delineation between light and dark,
Speaker 1: Like here is a character that goes almost full dark,
Speaker 1: like you know, stuff happens towards the end where all
Speaker 1: of a sudden barrass is like, oh wait a second,
Speaker 1: I guess the Inquisitors are bad and I shouldn't do
Speaker 1: but like she's been going on missions with the Inquisitors
Speaker 1: for x amount of time before she realizes fully that
Speaker 1: they're bad, Like this can't be the first time she's like,
Speaker 1: oh wait, I guess the Inquisitors are bad.
Speaker 2: And she.
Speaker 1: Is able to like pull back from even you can't
Speaker 1: even say the brink. She went beyond the brink. So
Speaker 1: what we're seeing again is this ability to navigate between
Speaker 1: light and dark, where you can cross over into the
Speaker 1: dark and maybe pull back to a I thought that
Speaker 1: was really interesting. What did you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm I I agree with you completely. I felt
Speaker 2: like this was very expanded universe. Like there's actually an
Speaker 2: old EU book called Tales from the Empire that was
Speaker 2: like a short story thing. I definitely feel like this
Speaker 2: is in that space, that same space of just adding
Speaker 2: in some important historical context.
Speaker 3: I thought it was interesting to see the fall of
Speaker 3: the Night Sisters.
Speaker 2: I thought that was interesting and get to kind of
Speaker 2: see how unprepared. They were for old Grievy, General Grievous
Speaker 2: to like, come, I just love him.
Speaker 1: I can't help it.
Speaker 3: He's he's a bad guy, but I just he's so cool.
Speaker 2: But getting to see that kind of play out, see
Speaker 2: the Separatist Army with battling the Night Sisters, and also
Speaker 2: getting to see where the connection between Morgan and Thron
Speaker 2: came from. Also, I think something that's very interesting about
Speaker 2: this and I think we can which is good for
Speaker 2: me because I the Datha Marian Knight Sister stuff. I
Speaker 2: think they're starting to do with the Night Sisters what
Speaker 2: they did with the Jedis, which we always joke about,
Speaker 2: which is like Order sixty six who survived, Oh nobody survived.
Speaker 3: They wiped out all the Jedi. No, they didn't, And
Speaker 3: in the canon.
Speaker 2: We only thought that it was Darth Moore and a
Speaker 2: Sarge Ventress who really survived the Master of the Night Sisters.
Speaker 2: Now we know Morgan Elsbeth did. And I think they're
Speaker 2: gonna start building out these cosmic magic characters and showcasing
Speaker 2: their impact on the galaxy in a way that we
Speaker 2: haven't really seen before.
Speaker 3: Morgan's kind of her rise.
Speaker 2: I'm like that's cool, but I was most interested in
Speaker 2: sort of seeing the ways that she navigated the galaxy too,
Speaker 2: and kind of how she came into contact with Drawn
Speaker 2: and that space. I liked the concept of doing these short,
Speaker 2: spunky Star Wars stories, but I will say I think
Speaker 2: both of these characters could have been better served by
Speaker 2: like an animated movie or something.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: I feel like there's a way where I would have
Speaker 2: liked to see them more cohesive. I love these kind
Speaker 2: of short stories for more wacky, like when we got
Speaker 2: to see Yaddle yeah and kind of see how brave
Speaker 2: Yaddle was and that interesting fight between her and what
Speaker 2: her fate was and her disagreements.
Speaker 3: With the Jedi.
Speaker 2: I kind of like the wacky secondary characters where I
Speaker 2: feel like both of these are quite like key villains.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: The thing that the one thing they've kind of made
Speaker 1: me sit forward during Elsbeth's episodes is kind of getting
Speaker 1: a taste of how incompetent the New Republic is. I think, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, like, listen, let's give them some credit in
Speaker 1: that it's a really hard job, and democracy in general
Speaker 1: is a lot more chaotic and loud then you know,
Speaker 1: one person rule under the Emperor, there's gonna be a
Speaker 1: lot of you knows, you allow voices to rise, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of disagreements, and thus there are.
Speaker 1: But it was like shocking to see how how unprepared
Speaker 1: the New Republic is to impress the force of their
Speaker 1: authority across the galaxy. I think that was one of
Speaker 1: the most interesting things to me in that first three
Speaker 1: episode arc.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Aboo raises a great point, and he just
Speaker 2: popped in the chat like what's the purpose of these
Speaker 2: tales shorts? Like what are they thinking strategically here? Because
Speaker 2: if a kid watches these, is this going to be
Speaker 2: their entry point into Star Wars?
Speaker 3: I'm not sure? Like is it for people like us
Speaker 3: who want to see these things expanded on? What do
Speaker 3: they do next?
Speaker 2: We've had, you know, Tales of the Jedi, now we've
Speaker 2: had Tales of the Empire. Are we going to get
Speaker 2: a different space where we're sort of like Tales of
Speaker 2: the Outer Rim? Like?
Speaker 3: What what is the plan?
Speaker 1: That's a great question, and I think it's this. I
Speaker 1: think these stories these properties much like the Clone Wars before,
Speaker 1: it is kind of like batting practice. Listen, what's the
Speaker 1: thing that we didn't see in any of the May
Speaker 1: the fourth News, New movie news. Really yeah, it's just
Speaker 1: it's happening. It's just it's happening. But like all those
Speaker 1: all those projects are in some stage of pre production, right,
Speaker 1: meaning like no sets, no nothing concrete, and projects like
Speaker 1: that go away often more often than not, you hear,
Speaker 1: oh this this thing is in pre production. The you know,
Speaker 1: the Game of Thrones prequel is in pre production, the
Speaker 1: John snow a sequel is and then what happens those
Speaker 1: things go away? They're looking to go back to the
Speaker 1: box office in a big way, right, in a big way.
Speaker 1: That's the missing piece right now for Star Wars. And
Speaker 1: that's where Star Wars really really moves the needle as
Speaker 1: a cultural force. You know, we love the Disney plus stuff.
Speaker 1: A lot of people do, a lot of Star Wars
Speaker 1: fans do, a lot of general nerd fans do, but
Speaker 1: it's not the thing that moves the needle for Star
Speaker 1: Wars as an ip and I think this is how
Speaker 1: they find the storylines, the things that move the audience
Speaker 1: that they can then say, okay, we have this, we
Speaker 1: know this kind of works. How do we translate this
Speaker 1: into whatever our next movie project? Is because that's what
Speaker 1: they want to do, that's where they want to go
Speaker 1: is get back to the box office.
Speaker 3: I think that's such a great point. And also I
Speaker 3: think that connected.
Speaker 2: To that is that these are probably projects that got
Speaker 2: green lit when they were trying to make so much
Speaker 2: content on Disney Plus, so they might actually not necessarily
Speaker 2: have a bigger plan for these outside of what you're saying,
Speaker 2: which is like do these characters hit people are about?
Speaker 2: What are they talking about? Almost a testing ground because
Speaker 2: that first Star Wars movie needs to be a billion
Speaker 2: dollar movie, especially with the delay. Yeah, I'm very interested
Speaker 2: to see I mean, I wouldn't be surprised as much
Speaker 2: as I want new stories in the Galaxy. The next
Speaker 2: one will be Star Wars ten. It would be Star
Speaker 2: Wars X, you know, episode ten. So I wouldn't be
Speaker 2: surprised if we see a turn more towards something like
Speaker 2: that as they get closer to deciding what the next
Speaker 2: movie will be. But I'd love to see the weird
Speaker 2: origins of the Force. I'm interested to see what they
Speaker 2: do with the Jedi Academy. But yeah, I think you're
Speaker 2: right on the number.
Speaker 1: Then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in this week's back matter, we're answering what is
Speaker 2: the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I talk about it a
Speaker 2: lot because I am a complete nerd who grew up
Speaker 2: reading boxes of books from car boot sales, and many
Speaker 2: of them were Star Wars Expanded un of us books.
Speaker 2: It is now known as Legends, and it was for
Speaker 2: many years a cannon space in Star Wars, which began
Speaker 2: with a serialized adaptation of Star Wars that was released
Speaker 2: six months before the movie.
Speaker 3: Even came out.
Speaker 2: Crazy, And then you had Splinter of the Mind's Eye,
Speaker 2: which was seen as a potential sequel by their sci
Speaker 2: fi legend Alan Deine Foster, and it was made so
Speaker 2: that if the movie didn't do well enough, they could
Speaker 2: adapt the book as a low budget sequel, and that
Speaker 2: was kind of the origins of what would become the
Speaker 2: Expanded Universe, and over years it would until twenty fourteen,
Speaker 2: encompass hundreds and hundreds of books, comics, video games. There
Speaker 2: was a big video game comic crossover that Dark Horse did.
Speaker 2: You got some classics like Era of the Empire. That's
Speaker 2: where Timothy Zhn's trilogy that began with that book that
Speaker 2: ended up introducing Thraun Granddadmiral Thorn. You had Star Wars
Speaker 2: Young Jedi Knights my favorite. That's where we learned about
Speaker 2: Luke's nis and nephew and Lea's kids, Jason and Jane
Speaker 2: are tales from Java's Palace, which was a short story book,
Speaker 2: and that's where we learned that Boba Fett actually survived
Speaker 2: something that we saw adapted directly in Book of Bobaffett
Speaker 2: where he climbs out of the starleac pit's stomachs. And
Speaker 2: then there were hundreds of books, many of them that
Speaker 2: contained continuous storytelling, and basically anything that was written there
Speaker 2: was considered canon, which meant we got some really cool stuff.
Speaker 2: In two thousand and nine, there was a book by
Speaker 2: Joe Schreiber called Death Troopers, which is a zombie stormtrooper
Speaker 2: story kind of like Alien where they go on a
Speaker 2: star destroyer that's abandoned in space and they find out
Speaker 2: that there are these kind of zombie stormtroopers on there,
Speaker 2: which was super cool. We also got a really great
Speaker 2: Dark Plagis book where you can kind of learn about
Speaker 2: you know, did you hear the story why the Wise,
Speaker 2: Well now you can read it Why James Losno's book.
Speaker 2: It's a really interesting, completely unique to Star Wars phenomenon
Speaker 2: where they literally would just allow these stories to exist
Speaker 2: in this kind of amorphous clinical space. And then when
Speaker 2: Disney took over it, and in twenty fourteen they decanonized
Speaker 2: it and now we know it as legends.
Speaker 3: But Disney does still dip in and out.
Speaker 2: Occasionally take they take the best bits exactly, They take
Speaker 2: characters people love, and it is a really fun space.
Speaker 2: The cool thing is you can you can go to Banzanoble,
Speaker 2: you can buy some of these books as legends, like
Speaker 2: the hand Solo Adventures. But if you just go to
Speaker 2: any thrift store, any second hand bookshop, you can likely
Speaker 2: find more of those old strange store about Princess Leiah
Speaker 2: getting married, about you know, weird creatures who live on
Speaker 2: the edge of the galaxy and who Hans Solo must
Speaker 2: go and steal from because that's just what he does.
Speaker 2: It's a completely wild sci fi space and I'm so
Speaker 2: glad it still exists. And that is what the Star
Speaker 2: Wars Expanded Universe is, or if you hear someone talking
Speaker 2: about Star Wars Legends, that is what.
Speaker 3: They are referring to.
Speaker 1: Thanks Rosie.
Speaker 2: Every episode we like to end the show with a
Speaker 2: fast moving segment this time, we're doing Who's Who with
Speaker 2: our favorite weird characters from the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Speaker 1: Do you want to go first? Should I go first? Oh?
Speaker 1: Go for it? Okay, My I don't know a favorite,
Speaker 1: but I think one of my most interesting weirdos is
Speaker 1: I don't know how to pronounce this stuff a lot
Speaker 1: of the times. Okay, so if I'm wrong, I apologize.
Speaker 1: Kudar move Bat from from nineteen ninety eight The Mandalorian Armor.
Speaker 1: Kudar Mubat is a like space spider of the Assembler species.
Speaker 1: They basically like create little like arachnid drone nodes, and
Speaker 1: this is the only one I think like this is
Speaker 1: the most evolved member of its species. Kudar Mubat.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I love the name. That's like such a Star
Speaker 3: Wars name. I mean, there's so many.
Speaker 2: I have many favorite characters from the Star Wars Expanding Universe,
Speaker 2: like Jason and Jayna mar Jay all these different, but
Speaker 2: my favorite weird character is Jackson with two exes Jacksons. Oh,
Speaker 2: and who is like a cool green Bunnie who has
Speaker 2: two pistols and is in the Star Wars comics from
Speaker 2: the seventies and eighties.
Speaker 3: The Marvel comics, and he is.
Speaker 2: Like a very weird bounty hunter green bunny who flies
Speaker 2: through space and has a group called the star Hoppers
Speaker 2: and they just do like super weird Guardians of the
Speaker 2: Galaxy esque adventures and it's very.
Speaker 3: Good and I love Jackson.
Speaker 2: And that is just like one of those great weird
Speaker 2: things about the Star Wars expanded Universe, which you know
Speaker 2: encompasses hundreds and hundreds of books and comics, is you
Speaker 2: get these.
Speaker 3: Really joyous little moments and weirdos.
Speaker 1: Like both of our favorites. That's right, because the galaxy
Speaker 1: is so huge, Rosie, the main takeaway from this episode
Speaker 1: today and that is it for our show, Rosie, I
Speaker 1: had a great time.
Speaker 3: I had a great time too. I'm so happy we
Speaker 3: got to talk Star Wars and I'm so excited about
Speaker 3: all the new Star Wars stuff that we're gonna keep
Speaker 3: getting to talk about.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: With that, see y'all next time. Bye. X ray Vision
Speaker 1: is hosted by Jason Getupsion and Rosie Nighte and is
Speaker 1: a production of iHeart Podcasts. Our executive producers are Joelle
Speaker 1: Smith and Aaron Kaufman. Our supervising producer is a Boo Zafar.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Carmen Laurent and Mia Taylor. Our theme
Speaker 1: song is by Brian Basquez.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to Soul Rubin and Chris Laude, Kenny Goodman
Speaker 2: and Heidi Our disco moderata